Our View: Remember all veterans — young and old

Monday

Nov 11, 2013 at 4:00 AM

Many of us have sons, daughters, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, friends or neighbors who are serving in the military. We hope they return to us healthy, without any physical or emotional scars. We worry about them every day, but especially today, Veterans Day.

Those men and women who answered their country's call, those who are on active duty today, will be tomorrow's veterans.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, more than 2 million Americans have been deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan or both. It's hard to believe that 18- and 19-year-olds in the service will be veterans by 25, but that's the case. We don't often think of them when we think of veterans, but we should. They've put themselves in harm's way to protect our way of life.

Just as millions did before them. The number of World War II and Korean War veterans is declining, so we should honor them as robustly as we can while they're still with us.

More than 1.3 million citizen-soldiers in this country have lost their lives protecting our freedom. More than 26 million Americans have served their country in the military.

Some volunteered. Some were drafted. All deserve respect.

We can't imagine some of the horrors they've seen and we thank them for keeping us safe.

Over the years, America saw a number of other conflicts: Grenada, Beirut, Panama, Iraq and Kosovo, to name a few. Then Iraq and Afghanistan, where 52,000 troops are fighting for us.

Few veterans live on easy street — 3.6 million have a service-connected disability. According to a Veterans Affairs website, nearly one-third of the adult homeless population has served in the armed forces. The jobless rate for all veterans in 2012 was 7 percent, a bit lower than the national average. However, unemployment among veterans who have served since September 2001 is 9.9 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

We're grateful to companies such as AT&T that have made hiring veterans a priority — more than 3,600 nationwide and more than 130 in Illinois. More companies need to step up.

These men and women have skills and experience their civilian peers do not. They at least deserve a chance at a job after the hardships they've had to endure on our behalf. Nothing can match the contributions of the men and women who have served and are serving our country.

We thank all veterans, past and present, for their service, their commitment and their sacrifice.